New York Times: "With anger swelling over corruption, inequality and a devastating Islamist insurgency in the nation’s north, Nigerians chose a former general who once ruled with an iron hand to be their next president, according to election results on Tuesday. The election was the most competitive presidential race ever in Nigeria, one of the largest democracies in the world. Now, if power is handed over peacefully, it will be a major shift for the nation — the first transfer of power between civilians of different parties in a country that has spent much of its post-colonial history roiled by military coups."

The Unfortunate Death of a Fool. Washington Post: "What had first appeared to be an attempt to breach security at the [NSA] ... now appears to be a wrong turn by two men who police believe had robbed their companion of his vehicle and perhaps didn’t stop because there were drugs inside. A spokeswoman for the Baltimore office of the FBI, Amy J. Thoreson, said early in the investigation that authorities 'do not believe [the incident] is related to terrorism.' A law enforcement official said: 'This was not a deliberate attempt to breach the security of NSA. This was not a planned attack.'”

New York Times: "On Monday, the [U.S.] government charged that in the shadows of an undercover investigation of Silk Road, a notorious black-market site, two federal agents sought to enrich themselves by exploiting the very secrecy that made the site so difficult for law enforcement officials to penetrate. The agents, Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun W. Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service, had resigned amid growing scrutiny, and on Monday they were charged with money laundering and wire fraud. Mr. Force was also charged with theft of government property and conflict of interest."

Guardian: "The personal details of world leaders at the last G20 summit were accidentally disclosed by the Australian immigration department, which did not consider it necessary to inform those world leaders of the privacy breach.... An employee of the agency inadvertently sent the passport numbers, visa details and other personal identifiers of all world leaders attending the summit to the organisers of the Asian Cup football tournament."

Washington Post: "One person was killed and another was injured Monday morning when police with the National Security Agency opened fire on a vehicle whose driver refused commands to stop at a security gate, according to a statement from the agency. The vehicle slammed into a police cruiser after shots were fired." ...

... ABC News: "Sources say the two inside [the vehicle] were men dressed as women. Preliminary information indicated the two men were partying at an area hotel with a third individual when they took that individual's car without permission. However, it's still unclear how or why they ended up at the NSA gate."

New York Times: "Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister who was forced from office under a cloud of corruption, was convicted on Monday of fraud and breach of trust in a retrial of a case involving an American businessman, whose sensational testimony in a Jerusalem court in 2008 was instrumental in Mr. Olmert’s downfall. The American businessman, Morris Talansky, said at the time that he had provided Mr. Olmert with about $150,000 over 13 years, mostly in cash stuffed into envelopes, an assertion Mr. Olmert vehemently denied. Mr. Talansky, known as Moshe, had said that much of the money was earmarked for election campaigns but that some was for Mr. Olmert’s personal expenses."

Public Service Announcement

Reuters: "Scientists believe they may have found a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease – not in the form of a drug but in focused beams of ultrasound. While the approach has only been tested in mice, researchers said on Wednesday it proved surprisingly good at clearing tangles of plaques linked to Alzheimer’s in the animals’ brains and improving their memory, as measured by tests such as navigating a maze."

David Graham of the Atlantic: "Trevor Noah's ascent on The Daily Show has been steep — hired on as senior international correspondent four months ago, he'll take over the anchor's desk from Jon Stewart after just three appearances on the show, Comedy Central announced Monday."

If you thought a meerkat was something like a mongoose ... Global News: "Meet Meerkat, the live streaming video service that allows users to host a live broadcast from their smartphones. If you haven’t heard of this new app don’t feel too bad – it’s only been around for about two weeks. But that hasn’t stopped it from garnering an estimated 300,000 active users, US$12 million in funding and even a few controversies."

In Case You Were Wondering... Megan Garber of the Atlantic examines multiple theories on why "men’s dress shirts have their buttons on the right, while women’s have them on the left (to the wearer)."

New York Times: "After three days of viewing by thousands who lined up for hours to file past the bier in Leicester’s Anglican cathedral, Richard’s skeletal remains, in a coffin of golden English oak with an incised Yorkist rose and an inscription giving the sparest details of his life — 'Richard III, 1452-1485' — were removed overnight from beneath a black cloth pall stitched with colorful images from his tumultuous times. With the solemn ceremony laid down for monarchs through the ages, the coffin was borne to a marble tomb adjacent to the cathedral’s altar by a party of 10 British Army pallbearers...." ...

Twenty percent more people trust Bill O'Reilly now than trusted O'Reilly before the press reported he was a serial liar:

East Wing Mystery. Washington Post: "There’s still no official comment on why [White House head florist Laura] Dowling is no longer at the White House, but according to a source with close ties to current residence staffers, she was escorted from the building on Friday Feb. 13." ...

... UPDATE. Thoroughly Modern Michelle. "Dowling ... left because her 'fussy style' was not in line with the first lady’s emerging modern and clean aesthetics, several sources said.... Recently the first lady has debuted a different aesthetic at the executive mansion. Last month, the White House revealed the newly refurbished and now decidedly modern Old Family dining room.... Mrs. Obama unveiled her 'thoroughly modernized' mark on the White House, featuring a custom-made 1950s-inspired rug and bold artwork, to surprised tourists on Feb. 10. Dowling is said to have been escorted from the White House three days later." ...

Reuters: "Whether it's the earnest Josiah Bartlet from 'The West Wing' or the manipulative Frank Underwood in 'House of Cards,' Americans prefer television presidents to their real-life POTUS, President Barack 'No Drama' Obama.'"

Washington Post: "King Richard III may have been buried quickly and without pomp the first time, but 530 years later, England is reveling in a final farewell to its long-lost monarch. On a sun-kissed Sunday afternoon on the battlefield where Richard III fell in 1485 — he was the last English king to die in battle — throngs of well-wishers, some dressed in medieval costume and blowing trumpets, gathered to honor England’s last Plantagenet king."

Out of the Parking Lot & into the Cathedral. Guardian: England is preparing to (re)inter a king today (Sunday, March 22). "... the coffin will be transferred to a horse-drawn hearse, to lead the way to a service of compline, with a sermon from a Roman Catholic archbishop, Vincent Nicholls. It will then lie in the cathedral, guarded night and day, until the reburial service on Thursday."

Politico: "The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it has granted Amazon Logistics, a subsidiary of the Internet retail giant, approval for a drone design that the company plans to use for research, development and training."

David Rackoff: "Things people say that irritate Republicans." Click thru. CW: I'll have to try to remember these. So I can say them. To Republicans. I hope I drive them all Rumpelstiltskin. Then I will ask the Flying Spaghetti Monster to forgive me for being so mean.

... CW: Somebody explain to me why apparently-intelligent people don't actually participate in events they attend but instead spend their time taking crappy cellphone videos, even when they know said events will be recorded by professionals & posted online. I get why a person would want to record some side-conversation with, say, the President, but the main event? It baffles me.

Patrick LaForge of the New York Times: "Welcome to a parallel universe. It is a world of tired news language where the verb 'stir' is bound to be followed by 'debate,' where those debates are always 'heated' or 'bitter.' In this world, anything newsworthy is automatically 'controversial,' and a 'hike' involves taxes, not a trail up a mountain. It is often a 'hardscrabble' place, sometimes 'densely wooded,' sometimes graced with 'manicured' lawns and 'leafy' streets. 'Landmark' agreements are 'hammered out' there, while adversaries are 'lambasted' and 'assailed.'” Meet journalese: a strained and artificial voice more common to news reports than to natural conversation." LaForge cites numerous examples of NYT reporters' use of these cliches.

CW: I will be at an undisclosed location all morning, but should be back by 1:00 pm ET-ish. ...

... Update: here's the undisclosed location, disclosed:

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama reflected in highly personal ways about the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater on Friday as he cut short a campaign trip and urged Americans to reflect on the fragility of life." President Obama's full remarks are here.

... Here's Baker writing his report. He was sitting just behind me, so of course I gave him hell for all that "he said/he said" reporting. Really, I did, tho I was evah so polite about it. And he was very nice. Plus, as Sherrod Brown's wife might say, "He's really cute":

Congresswoman Bachmann's comments are baseless, irresponsible, and beneath contempt. Having said that, I think I would have chosen her as my running mate over Mitt Romney. -- Sen. John McCain (or so Andy Borowitzclaims) ...

... Molly Hooper of The Hill: "At a press conference Thursday, [House Speaker John] Boehner (R-Ohio) defendedHuma Abedin, the deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). Boehner said he did not know Abedin well, but that 'from everything that I know of her she has a sterling character. I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.' Boehner is the latest high-profile GOP official to criticize the charges by [Rep. Michele] Bachmann [RTP-Minnesota] and four other GOP lawmakers that Abedin could be using her position at the State Department to aid the Muslim Brotherhood.” CW: Could this be the beginning of the end of Tea Party histrionics? Let's see if Boehner gets after Allen West (RTPCrazy-Florida). ...

His Troubled Ass. Neil, I have been the most fucking transparent Secretary of the Treasury in this country's entire fucking history! ... No one has ever made the banks disclose the type of shit that I made them disclose after the stress tests. No one! And now you're saying that I haven't been fucking transparent? -- Tim Geithnerto Neil Barofsky, then the special inspector general for TARP. Thanks to Kate M. for the link

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. -- Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life. -- Ann Romney

Ann Romney's Marie Antoinnete Moment." Rita Ciolli of Newsday: "The stir over the 'you people' faux pas ... is overshadowing what Romney said about not releasing the returns just before the 'you people' line. 'There are so many things that will be open again for more attack.... And you just want to give more material for more attack. And that's really -- that's just the answer.' ... Romney's response underscores that she doesn't understand the real question." ...

... Digby: "Dear me, it appears that Lady Romney has lost her patience with the riff raff and their unseemly questioning about money. One simply doesn't respond when the lower orders begin to believe they're better than they ought to be.... The very idea that a man of Mitt Romney's obvious superiority could be questioned about his finances is utterly offensive. Enough." ...

... "Pathos of the Plutocracy." Paul Krugman: "Not only do many of the superrich feel deeply aggrieved at the notion that anyone in their class might face criticism, they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn't like them is at the root of our economic problems.... Mr. Romney..., too, argu[ed] that because the president attacks success 'we have less success.' This ... is crazy (and it's disturbing that Mr. Romney appears to share this delusional view about what ails our economy).... Clearly, Mr. Romney believed that he could run for president while remaining safe inside the plutocratic bubble and is both shocked and angry at the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him."

Aw. No more dressage videos. The DNC is heartily sorry to have offended Lady Romney. (See yesterday's Commentariat.)

Betting against the U.S. Tim Egan: "Anyone who wants to lead this nation, and stashes millions of dollars in foreign banks, overseas financial havens and byzantine accounts in countries without tax or regulation, had better be prepared to defend that financial betrayal."

** Joseph Tanfani, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "When Mitt Romney launched Bain Capital in 1984, he struggled at first to raise enough money.... So he and his partners tapped an eclectic roster of investors, raising more than a third of their first $37-million investment fund from wealthy foreigners. Most of the foreign investors' money came through corporations registered in Panama, then known for tax advantages and unusual banking secrecy.... Bain Capital was enmeshed in the largely opaque world of international high finance from its very inception."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Sylvia Woods, known to so many as the Queen of Soul Food, died at 86."

Bloomberg News: "A former Bank of America Corp. executive was indicted for allegedly participating in what prosecutors said was a 'far-reaching conspiracy' to defraud municipal bond investments through bid rigging. Phillip D. Murphy, former head of Bank of America's municipal derivatives desk, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud and conspiracy to make false entries in bank records, according to the indictment filed yesterday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.... So far, 13 individuals from banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and UBS AG (UBSN) have pleaded guilty in the Justice Department's investigation. Bank of America, JPMorgan, UBS, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and General Electric Co. have paid more than $700 million in restitution and penalties."

Bloomberg News: "President Barack Obamaraised $45.9 million last month and entered July with $97.5 million in the bank.... He started July with more money in the bank than presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who brought in $33 million and reported $22.5 million cash on hand. Obama has now raised more than $307 million for his campaign, compared with more than $156 million for Romney."

Bloomberg News: "The suspect in the Colorado shooting bought two pistols, a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun since May, avoiding federal reporting requirements and taking advantage of the state’s failure to pass significant firearms legislation since the Columbine massacre 13 years ago." ...

Reader Comments (16)

Thanks to Paul Krugman for verifying my diagnosis of Mitt's NPD. The key words are "the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him." Seriously, that type of attitude is a classic example of NPD characteristics. And the best part of Mrs. Mitt's comment is not the 'you people'. It's the 'There are so many things that will be open again for more attack'. Really? Didn't she just admit that his tax returns contain very bad things? Anywhere else in the world and Mitt would be toast. I'll bet that half our fellow 'citizens' don't even know his tax returns are an issue.

The most upsetting and pathetic thing to me right now is that MittWitt, with shit pouring all over him--as he is strapped in his crate on top of his undisclosed tax returns--is that the latest polls show him LEADING Obama by one or two points. Or running even.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR STUPID VOTERS? Or is it the STUPID corporate pollsters?

RE: We the people. Peepos, very special peepos; we're the luckiest peepos in the world. I see a cartoon in the New Yorker by the artist who draws those parlor scenes with the drooling, ball licking dogs and the guys wearing the "Stella!" T-shirts. He would be reading the newspaper and talking to his apron-wearing wife. The caption would be, "Yea, those people, right on again Mrs. Howell."

Yesterday Victoria suggested a good comeback for President Obama when Willard the Rat sniffs that Obama doesn’t understand business because he’s never been a businessman, to which Obama could retort that Romney doesn’t understand the presidency because he’s never been president. (Although he could also say that Romney has never been a businessman either. He’s a carrion eating vulture.)

I like it. But Obama had never been POTUS either before 2009. I think the real issue is the difference in vision each has for the country. In 2008 we all needed a sense that things could get better after the depravity, murder, war-mongering, treason, mendacity, and calumny of the Bush years. "Change you can believe in" was a cri de coeur many voters could rally to. McCain's "More of the same" was not.

This time around Romney's call to arms is "More of the same, only worse. Much worse."

One might surmise, given that, that anything Obama comes up with, short of "Gonna get me a shotgun and kill every whitey I see" should fulfill all conditions necessary and sufficient.

SHOULD be. But likely WON'T be.

Obama will have to come up with something far more persuasive and compelling to overcome the hatred and lies being spread by Romney, his brownshirt apparatchiks at Crossroads, and the sycophantic courtiers lining up to kiss the royal ass.

But even more damaging than "you've never been POTUS" might be the declaration that "you have no idea what the job entails, and don't care." It's not so much that he doesn't have the experience. He has no clue what the job of president is all about. And couldn't possibly care less.

The level of caring on the part of both Romneys about anything other than themselves, money, and power is screechingly clear now that we’ve all gotten a good look up Queen Ann’s upturned nose, an appendage she is obliged--frequently, no doubt--to pinch while on the campaign trail in order to protect the royal olfactories from the stench of average, non-rich Americans. It’s a wonder she doesn’t keep a scented handkerchief pressed against the august visage whilst stepping gingerly through crowds of the great unwashed. So delicate, those royals.

We can make fun of it (and should) but it’s yet another indication of how weirdly different the Romneys are. Just imagine the apoplexy in the MSM and especially the nutball far right media had Michelle Obama or Teresa Heinz Kerry offered such an unvarnished admission of privileged superiority.

The howls would have been biblical.

(I’m tempted to suggest that her royal highness relax a little and take a hint from another historical queen, Catherine the Great. I mean she’s already down with horses, isn’t she? She’d probably have a much better time than with King Rat.)

But, even more disturbing than Lord and Lady Romney’s (I’m reminded here of the old SNL sketch featuring Lord and Lady Douchebag—http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_b3oPslctA) innate belief in their own transcendence, is the fact that, as Kate has pointed out, King Rat is in a dead heat with Obama. I really don’t think any of Romney’s multitudes of lies, his sense of entitlement, his tax evasions, and the raising of his middle finger to voters regarding his secret life has made the tiniest dent with most voters. People already in Obama’s camp will vote for the president. People who hate Obama would vote for a smelly piece of cheese so voting for the royal Romneys is, well....a piece of cake. Those in the middle are probably too busy dreaming about their own Cayman Island accounts or wondering how come the Knicks didn’t re-sign Jeremy Lin.

I’m refraining from saying “we’re screwed” but Obama better start making his case against Richie Rich in a much more forceful way (and the case for himself), or Marie Antoinette will be sharpening the guillotine for all of “you people”.

Kate's question: It's something quite puzzling, isn't it? The fact that Romney is doing as well as he is in the polls. We've always believed the populace had a distain for the elite, the moneyed people who run for office. Poor John Kerry got tomatoes (them that's in that Heinz Catsup) flung at him for being erudite and rich. Both LBJ and Nixon had a hatred for the upper classes––the former called them "the Harvards," the latter called them, "The Franklins" (an elite group in college that wouldn't bother with someone like Nixon). So both of these men tried to appeal to the country as being just regular folks––"I understand you, I'm just like you are, I feel your pain along with your need to gain a leg up." Kennedy aced it because at that time the country was hungry for glamour, for that myth of Camelot, for youth and panache. And now when the little people are furious at being such little people you would think they would rally round the guy that's trying to give them some legs, but sadly, for many, they rally round the guy who is going to screw them––the guy with the big bucks and is further apart from them then any one of our recent presidents. Heck, this guy didn't even like their cookies!

The news of the theatre shootings breaks my heart. How easy was it for this deviant to purchase all those "way cool" guns that he used to kill, at random? Just how easy?????

Hi Akhilleus! We could also say Mitt doesn't understand the Constitution because he has never studied it, let alone taught it. He doesn't understand the average American's needs because he has always been wealthy. Etc.This whole business of using his - as you say - Vulture Capitalism experience to leverage himself into the position as best qualified to lead the country is pretty ridiculous. My hope is that voters eventully see that, when they start paying attention. ....if they start paying attention.

As Krugman points out in his fine column today, rich fat cats like Romney and their shills in the WSJ, on Fox, and, yes, in the NYTIMES, frequently point out that the business environment stinks because…why?

Because the president doesn’t like them.

Boo-hoo.

As Krugman points out this is patently ridiculous. I would add “borderline pathological”. I realize that logic and rationality are vague and fleeting concepts for most conservatives, especially wealthy ones, but bear with me for a moment while I indulge my own fetish for the real world.

In what universe would it be possible for the suspected inner feelings (not even voiced, mind you) of one person to affect—in any way--a multi trillion dollar economy? Let’s stipulate that this person is not a supreme being and even if he were, unless those feelings were A.) real and B.) able to manifest themselves as a force in the world, feelings are still just that.

So in no way can how someone feels (or more to the point, the way certain individuals believe they feel) about a thing or a group or a concept, have the slightest effect on the concrete universe. None. Unless perhaps one were to posit that the groups/individuals held in such (presumed) low regard allowed that belief to seriously affect their own state of mind, judgment, and psychological well being. Were that the case however, the individuals in those groups would have far bigger problems than crying because someone doesn’t like them.

C’mon already. These guys are supposedly the Masters of the Universe. Builders, shakers, movers, JOB CREATORS. Should they fold up like an old lawn chair because someone they’ve never met might think they aren’t so hot? Just imagine how short the Gilded Age would have been had robber barons like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Jay Gould, and the other rapacious buccaneers of that era, all fell on their oriental carpets and kicked and screamed and threatened to hold their breath because Teddy Roosevelt said mean things about them. They didn’t give a shit what Teddy said. Until his trust busting ways got their attention. And even then they didn’t whine like Romney and WSJ editors about hurt feelings. And they actually HAD something to complain about. The Sherman Act and Roosevelt’s public battles with many of them (except the ones he went hat in hand to for campaign contributions) must have seriously inconvenienced their thieving ways.

Today corporations pay fewer taxes and have to deal with less regulation than any group in decades. But still they whine. And still King and Queen Romney demand that we all bow and scrape and treat them like Royalty.

Planet Romney must miss its monarchs. Time to send them back to lord it over the monkeys in the Caymans. That is, if their feelings won’t be hurt too terribly.

Nothing annoys me more than having to look at images of the scumbag that murdered 12 in Colorado. The MSM does it all the time with such events. Hello assholes, that is exactly what the bastard wants to see!

I am so saddened and horrified by this latest gun violence in Colorado! But like you, James Singer, I am relieved to see this was another crazy WHITE guy--not an Arab, African American, Hispanic, Asian, or any other minority. He even has a very WASPY name--though that does not mean much.

I am really, really upset that Obama has not spoken up for gun control; he must do it NOW! Fuck the NRA! This kind of outrageous crime could not have happened with a knife!

I submitted the following in comments to Charles Blow's column this morning. I don't believe it made the cut (mebbe the language):

The question we need to ask is, "Has the U.S.A. become the N.R.A.'s bitch?" Are we so terrified of confrontation that we kowtow to any cult of nuts who yell loud enough? I believe the answer is "Yes," and all this discussion is merely therapeutic, an attempt to make ourselves feel better by pretending that we just might take a stand one of these days.